Can you judge a book by its cover?

You can’t judge a book by its cover, or is it you can judge a book by its cover? I know, I know, it’s the latter unless you are a Bo Diddley fan. But I digress. I will admit, I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to browsing for a new book. I won’t even pick up a book that isn’t appealing to me. We have become such visual creatures and with such short attention spans, the cover of a book is more important now than ever, possibly. Don’t you hate those damn qualifiers? Stephen King would have already stopped reading this post I am sure.

Anyhoo, one of the things I have learned in my short Indie author career is the importance of the cover and title. Early on I was asked by someone I trust, and with knowledge in the publishing industry, that my first two novels had horrid titles that told the reader nothing. After clearing the lump in the back of my throat, I listened and then went to my loyal readers. All of them said they loved the titles and the covers. So I, of course, left them alone. Three years later now with anemic sales and the books buried in Indie Author anonymity, I have decided to rethink my stubborn strategy. I learned it is easy for someone who has read a novel and enjoyed it, to understand the title and cover. But to try to get someone to pick it off the shelf, or click on the image online is a different story. I may have been better off with the novel cover I originally created, see image included in this post, than the one I professionally paid for. Since I can’t go back in time, I am off to Kickstarter to launch a campaign for new editions. Let’s hope the new titles and covers give a good representation of what the novels are about. Cheers.